It is known to use vocational trucks in different configurations so as to maximize the use thereof, in light of the important capital investment associated with such trucks. Hence, a vocational truck may be dedicated to dump-truck use in the summer, and be equipped with a snowplough in the winter. However, due to transport regulations and safety reasons, a vocational truck must have given specifications so as to operate a snowplough system. Indeed, existing snowplough systems are commonly anchored to the front of the vehicle, and may be raised to a retracted position to facilitate vehicle displacement when not snowploughing. In this retracted position, the snowplough blade is in a cantilevered arrangement relative to the truck. The cantilevered arrangement of the snowplough blade substantially increases the load on the front axle of the truck.
Hence, it is common to have oversizing specifications for vehicle axles, in light of the contemplated vocational use of the truck as a snowplough. For example, it may be required that the front axle of a truck operating a snowplough be oversized. Such specifications may have an impact on the efficiency of the vocational truck, for instance when subsequently used as a dump-truck. This may have an impact on the efficiency of the truck when used as a dump-truck, because of inadequate load spread on the truck, vehicle overweight, non-optimal road behaviour of the truck, increased turn radius, etc.
Moreover, the snowplough configuration may limit the capacity of the vehicle in terms of additional weight it can support. As a result, a truck operating a snowplough system may be limited in its load carrying capacity. This may prove problematic, in that trucks with snowploughing vocation are ideally equipped with equipment for spreading abrasives on the road, and with a load of abrasives.